Nailed the wees but not the poos!

Daughter (3 next month) has been doing wees in the potty/toilet for the past few months. She may have the odd wee accident but generally has nailed that. The poos are a whole other story!

When we first tried potty training approx 5 months ago (she was showing all the signs) she just withheld her poo for 4/5 days and as such was lathargic and grumpy. So we decided not to proceed.

The second time was a success pretty much straight away with her wees but again she withheld her poos.

She has a pull up on when she has her day time nap and a pull up on at night time so she subconsciously got into the habit of holding her poo until the pull up went on and that's where we've been for the past few months.

It doesn't matter how much we praise her, sing songs, do silly dances, bribe her with chocolate buttons, illegal even have a little bucket with a load of toys that I keep showing her, telling her she can choose one if she does a poo on the potty. But, not interested.

I could have written this, Dd turned 3 in September, cracked wees but would poo in her knickers daily. Nursery have been really good about it and haven't pushed her at all so I've followed their lead and been laid back about it too thinking it will come in time

Then at the end of last week nursery mentioned that they had noticed blood in her poo. She had been going quite regularly so it wasn't due to constipation as such but when I did a bit of a google it looked the likely cause was her with holding poo.

I started giving her apple juice with her lunch and making sure she was eating fibre based veg and cereal. Nursery have been asking her every 15 mins but taking her every 30 mins to the toilet and this week she has done 3 poos at nursery and one at home this weekend. We have praised her with gifts (it's going to bankrupt us) but it's definitely helped.

We are no where near having cracked it but we have made huge improvements in just one week.

If it makes you feel any better, my son was closer to four before we finally cracked it, and I put him back in nappies because I found it stressful having pooey pants everyday. But once he did crack it, we had barely any accidents at all. He is now 10, and doesn't remember the stress at all, but I can!

Eldest DS really struggled, it took months before he'd do a poo in the toilet. I tried everything and in the end just let him do it at his own pace, and he did at nearly 4. For DD I didn't get stressed about toilet training, we let her do it at her own pace and she was ready before 3. DS2 who is nearly 3 hasn't shown any interest at all, so we're waiting for the breakthrough when he's interested. Don't worry too much, she'll do it in her own time, fwiw I found the more pressure I put on, the worse it got. Hang in there, she'll get there when she's ready.

My DD just turned 3 was just like this. I would now cautiously say we have cracked it in the last month or two. I tried everything anyone has ever suggested in this board - poo goes to pooland, bribes, ignoring, shouting What eventually worked was increasing her laxative (movicol) which she's been on since she was about a year old, to the point where she just couldn't withhold. She was in a vicious circle of fear where she was worried doing a poo on the potty would hurt. I would suggest using dietary techniques to reduce constipation - upping her fruit and fluid including apple orange or prune juice and if that doesn't work get down to the doctor and get a laxative. And try to stay relaxed about it, hard though it is. Try not to let her see it is bothering you. It is so stressful though. I was often in tears about this until recently